Top 100 Ivan Turgenev Quotes

#1. A withered maple leaf has left its branch and is falling to the ground; its movements resemble those of a butterfly in flight. Isn't it strange? The saddest and deadest of things is yet so like the gayest and most vital of creatures?

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #17668
#2. Time sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a snail; but a man is happiest when he does not even notice whether it passes swiftly or slowly.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #35492
#3. A son is like a lopped off branch. As a falcon he comes when he wills and goes where he lists.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #60561
#4. We're young, we're not monsters, no fools: we'll conquer happiness for ourselves.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #92452
#5. Every man's happiness is built on the unhappi-ness of another.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #111162
#6. It was only the vulgarly mediocre that repelled her.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #146058
#7. There's something tragic in the fate of almost every person
it's just that the tragic is often concealed from a person by the banal surface of life ... A woman will complain of indigestion and not even know that what she means is that her whole life has been shattered.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #158612
#8. Whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself to this: Great God, grant that twice two be not four.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #164332
#9. I walked in the meadows of green grieving for my life.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #178775
#10. However much you knock at nature's door, she will never answer you in comprehensible words.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #181661
#11. Looking about me, listening and recalling what the day had been like, I suddenly felt a secret unease in my heart and raised my eyes to the sky, but even in the sky there seemed to be no tranquillity. Dotted with stars, it constantly quivered and danced and shivered.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #202031
#12. Everyone needs help from everyone else.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #223595
#13. The temerity to believe in nothing.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #232253
#14. All human beings hang by a thread, an abyss may open under their feet at any moment, and yet they have to go and invent all sortsof difficulties for themselves and spoil their lives.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #234778
#15. We sit in the mud ... and reach for the stars.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #248666
#16. Death doesn't come running, but you can't run away from it, neither; nor must you be helping it along.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #254434
#17. Illness isn't the only thing that spoils the appetite.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #256049
#18. We Russians have assigned ourselves no other task in life but the cultivation of our own personalities, and when we're barely past childhood, we set to work to cultivate them, those unfortunate personalities.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #257732
#19. After all, when you think of it, nothing is stronger in the world...and weaker--than a word!

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #269259
#20. Take for yourself what you can, and don't be ruled by others; to belong to oneself - the whole savour of life lies in that.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #282177
#21. She tore herself away, and went out. And I went away. I cannot describe the emotion with which I went away. I should not wish it ever to come again; but I should think myself unfortunate had I never experienced such an emotion.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #291812
#22. I was as happy as a fish in water, and I could have stayed in that room for ever, have never left that place.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #315134
#23. Who among us has the strength to oppose petty egoism, those petty good feelings, pity and remorse?

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #331337
#24. I don't see why it's impossible to express everything that's on one's mind.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #333231
#25. Death is something ancient, but it comes fresh to each of us.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #358364
#26. It's amazing how man still believes in words. For example, if you call him a fool and don't beat him, he'll be wretched. Call him a genius and don't give him any money - he'll be quite satisfied.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #370449
#27. What's important is that twice two is four and all the rest's nonsense.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #428693
#28. Oh, gentle feelings, soft sounds, the goodness and the gradual stilling of a soul that has been moved; the melting happiness of the first tender, touching joys of love- where are you?

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #430094
#29. And was it his destined part /
Only one moment in his life /
To be close to your heart?

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #456210
#30. Both men felt uncomfortable. Each knew the other understood him. That kind of knowledge is agreeable for friends, and for enemies very disagreeable, especially when they can't either have it out or separate.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #467018
#31. Traces of human life vanish very quickly: Glafira Petrovna's estate had not yet gone wild, but it seemed already to have sunk into that quiet repose which possesses everything on earth wherever there is no restless human infection to affect it.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #474323
#32. Circumstances define us; they force us onto one road or another, and then they punish us for it.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #483420
#33. No! I cannot love people whom I find that I look down on. I need someone who would himself master me, but then, goodness me, I shall never come across anyone like that. I will never fall into anybody's clutches, never, never.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #490147
#34. Every single man hangs by a thread, a bottomless pit can open beneath him any minute, and yet he still goes on thinking up unpleasantnesses for himself and making a mess of his life.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #543795
#35. Love isn't actually a feeling at all
it's an illness, a certain condition of body and soul ... Usually it takes possession of someone without his permission, all of a sudden, against his will
just like cholera or a fever.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #555836
#36. I was afraid of looking into my heart ... afraid of thinking seriously about anything ... I did not want to know whether I was loved, and I did not want to admit to myself that I was not loved ...

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #587936
#37. Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #601323
#38. In his heart he was highly delighted with his friend's suggestion, but he thought it a duty to conceal his feeling. He was not a nihilist for nothing!

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #639438
#39. There are some moments in life, some feelings; one can only point to them and pass by.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #656164
#40. I burnt as in a fire in her presence ... but what did I care to know what the fire was in which I burned and melted
it was enough that it was sweet to burn and melt.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #672732
#41. If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #674145
#42. Weak people never put an end to things themselves. They always wait for the end.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #695517
#43. Oh, sweet emotions, gentle harmony, goodness and peace of the
softened heart, melting bliss of the first raptures of love, where are they,
where are they?

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #695994
#44. Take what you can yourself, and don't let others get you into their hands; to belong to oneself, that is the whole thing in life.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #706741
#45. To be young and not to know how, is bearable; to be old and not have the strength, is too great a weight to carry. And what's is so painful you can't sense your powers leaving you. It's hard for an old man to ensure such blows!

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #718492
#46. Go forward while you can, but if your strength fails you, sit down near the road and gaze without anger or envy at those who pass by. They don't have far to go, either.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #732220
#47. Know how to will, and you will be free, and will lead.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #749477
#48. I believe love produces a certain flowering of the whole personality which nothing else can achieve ...

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #765497
#49. You may live a long while with some people and be on friendly terms with them and never speak openly with them from your soul.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #783250
#50. Significance is sweet ...

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #802706
#51. Sentimental outbreaks are like liquorice; when first you suck it, it's not bad, but afterwards it leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #808950
#52. I never started from ideas but always from character.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #824374
#53. The past was a dream wasn't it? And who ever remembers dreams?

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #831478
#54. As we all know, time sometimes flies like a bird, and sometimes
crawls like a worm, but people may be unusually happy when they do not
even notice whether time has passed quickly or slowly

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #841133
#55. How sad that youth, with all its power,
Was given us in vain, to burn;
That we betrayed it every hour,
And were deceived by it in turn;

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #848960
#56. People without firmness of character love to make up a fate for themselves; that relieves them of the necessity of having their own will and of taking responsibility for themselves.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #848991
#57. His little eyes, which looked as if they'd literally been hammered into place, gazed out fixedly and uncomfortably, and he also had a way of laughing uncomfortably with an abrupt, wooden laugh.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #849034
#58. Sternly, remorselessly, fate guides each of us; only at the beginning, when we're absorbed in details, in all sorts of nonsense, in ourselves, are we unaware of its harsh hand.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #865059
#59. What did I hope for, what did I expect, what rich future did I foresee, when the phantom of my first love, rising up for an instant, barely called forth one sigh, one mournful sentiment?

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #865801
#60. Whatever a person may pray for, that person prays for a miracle. Every prayer comes down to this - Almighty God, grant that two times two not equal four.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #892017
#61. The "why not" of youth, the secret desire to know his luck, to try his strength all on his own without the support of another, eventually won through.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #931995
#62. I'm through with Tolstoy. He has ceased to exist for me ... If I eat a bowl of soup and like it, I know by that fact alone and with absolute certainty that Tolstoy will find it bad, and vice versa.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #935628
#63. I had no first love,' he said at last; 'I began with the second.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1038756
#64. A man is capable of understanding everything - how the ether vibrates and what happens on the sun. But to understand how another man can blow his nose differently from the way he blows his own is something beyond his capability.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1117922
#65. I could not simplify myself.
(From the suicide note of a character named Nejdanov)

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1118538
#66. So many memories and so little worth remembering, and in front of me - a long, long road without a goal ...

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1145783
#67. I look up to heaven only when I want to sneeze.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1152627
#68. One doesn't know what one doesn't know.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1176419
#69. You may feed the wolf as you will; he has always a hankering for the woods.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1182698
#70. I did not want to know whether I was loved, and I did not want to acknowledge to myself that I was not loved;

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1191619
#71. A dry maple leaf has come off and is falling to the earth; its movement is exactly like a butterfly's flight. Isn't it strange? Gloom and decay - like brightness and life.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1262494
#72. This is the only thing that makes life worth living. If you have succeeded in doing something you wanted to do, something that seemed impossible - well, then, make the most of it, with all your heart, to the very brim.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1270899
#73. No matter how often you knock at nature's door, she won't answer in words you can understand
for Nature is dumb. She'll vibrate and moan like a violin, but you mustn't expect a song.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1272216
#74. Tempered, gradual animation, the methodical restrain of sensations and energies, the equilibrium of sickness and health in each creature
this is nature's essence, its immutable law, this is what it's based on and what it adheres to.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1343797
#75. Belonging to oneself
the whole essence of life lies in that.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1392106
#76. Love, I thought, is stronger than death or the fear of death. Only by it, by love, life holds together and advances.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1392972
#77. Victims of misfortune are quick to sense another of their kind from a distance, but in old age they rarely become friends, which is in no way surprising: they have nothing to share together - not even hope.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1416257
#78. Ah, but in time the heat of noontide passes, and to it there succeed nightfall and dusk, with a return to the quiet fold where for the weary an the heavy-laden there waits sleep, sweet sleep.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1423300
#79. You are an old pig!'one of them said to the other. 'And that is worse than being a young one.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1424407
#80. Beware of the love of women; beware of that ecstasy - that slow poison.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1477640
#81. And I used to think, after all, I'll do a whole mass of things, I'll not die, no way! There's a task to be done and I'm a giant! And now the giant's only task is to die decently, although no one cares a damn about that ... Still, I won't start wagging my tail.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1501397
#82. Nature cares nothing for logic, our human logic: she has her own, which we do not recognize and do not acknowledge until we are crushed under its wheel.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1517518
#83. Anyone who has crossed from the district of Bolkhov into that of Zhizdra will probably have been struck by the sharp difference between the natives of the provinces of Orel and Kaluga.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1545537
#84. What's this?' she asked. 'Is it a sphinx?'
Yes,' he answered, 'and the sphinx is you.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1556022
#85. Nature creates while destroying, and doesn't care whether it creates or destroys as long as life isn't extinguished, as long as death doesn't lose its rights.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1556747
#86. A person who gets angry at his own illness is sure to overcome it

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1564714
#87. We act by virtue of what we recognize as beneficial. At the present time, negation is the most beneficial of all - and we deny.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1627206
#88. A nihilist is a man who doesn't acknowledge any authorities, who doesn't accept a single principle on faith, no matter how much that principle may be surrounded by respect.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1635576
#89. Death's an old story, but new for each person.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1640957
#90. In the end, nature is inexorable: it has no reason to hurry and, sooner or later, it takes what belongs to it. Unconsciously and inflexibly obedient to its own laws, it doesn't know art, just as it doesn't know freedom, just as it doesn't know goodness.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1652089
#91. Well, what had I to say to you ... I loved you! there was no sense in that even before, and less than ever now. Love is a form, and my own form is already breaking up. Better say how lovely you are! And now here you stand, so beautiful ...

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1673353
#92. Behind me there are already so many memories ( ... ) Lots of memories, but no point in remembering them, and ahead of me a long, long road with nothing to aim for ... I just don't want to go along it.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1675705
#93. Even nightingales can't be fed on fairy tales.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1681829
#94. Don't force me into saying what I don't want to say, and what I won't say.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1697030
#95. Go and try to disprove death. Death will disprove you, and that's all!

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1706447
#96. What a magnificent body, how I should like to see it on the dissecting table.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1706833
#97. Oh we have hard times to live through, those of us who are born spectators.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1708394
#98. Death is like a fisherman who has caught a fish in his net and leaves it for a time in the water: the fish still swims about, but the net surrounds it, and the fisherman will take it when he wishes.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1749866
#99. Caprice and irresponsibility ... .
Those two words sum you up; your whole nature's contained in those
two words.

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1774793
#100. Woe to the heart that has not loved in youth!

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev Quotes #1869472

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